Stem cell donation gets £4million funding boost

The UK government is to inject £4million funding into a project
-- agreed with partners NHS Blood & Transplant and bone marrow
charity Anthony Nolan -- that aims to match stem cell donors to
potential recipients.

There are three main elements to the project. First of all Anthony Nolan and NHS Blood & Transplant will
unite their bond marrow registries together by aligning their
databases. This will speed up donor searches and therefore donor
matches.

Secondly, the Department of Health and Anthony Nolan will
establish a "fit panel" of 20,000 young adult donors -- people who
are likely to be fit and able to donate who have their tissue type
analysed to a high level of accuracy.

Finally the partners will turn its collection services at its
five umbilical cord blood collection sites to a 24/7 service. They will also open a
new collection facility towards the end of 2011. These changes will
grow the NHS Cord Blood Bank from 17,000 processed and stored units
to 35,000.

Umbilical cord blood is a very useful alternative to bone marrow
as a source of stem cells for use in transplantation. Stem cells from this blood can be transplanted
from even a mismatched donor and still be effective in treating
certain diseases and disorders such as cancer and sickle cell
anaemia. Unrelated cord blood can often be easier to get hold of
than adult bone marrow since extracting it is a less invasive
process.

These initiatives -- which were based on the findings of a report issued last year -- should reduce
average search times down to two weeks. Currently more than 400
patients a year are denied access to a transplant, but more than
half of these lives could be saved if a donor were available. This
loss of life disproportionately affects black and minority ethnic
patients.

Anthony Nolan Chief Executive Henny Braund said: "The
collaboration is great news. For a patient with a blood cancer
waiting for a stem cell transplant, every minute counts and
everything we can do to reduce that time is vital."

Lynda Hamlyn, Chief Executive of NHS Blood and Transplant,
said: "This investment by Government will help increase the
number of stem cell samples collected and, equally important,
reduce the waiting time for patients to find a suitable match."